The present invention relates to a grease tray, and more particularly to a grease tray for use in a range hood.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, a portion of the cooking fume is blown out in a direction tangential to the blade face of an air impeller 11 at such time when a fume exhauster 10 is running. For this reason, a grease tray 14 of a plastic material is mounted between an air inlet 121 of an air guiding box 12 and an air suction port 131 of a bottom plate 13. Now referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, the grease tray 14 of the prior art is shown to comprise a centrally located air hole 141 having an outer circumference provided with an annular groove 142. A grease tube 143 is disposed at an appropriate location in the outer wall forming the annular groove 142.
The way in which the cooking fume exhauster 10 is set up, as described above, is in fact a time-honored practice in the industry. However, such mechanical set-up of the prior art has a major shortcoming, which is explicitly expounded hereinafter.
As soon as a motor 15 of the fume exhauster 10 is started, the cooking fume is guided into the air guiding box 12 by a suction effect of the air impeller 11 at work. The fume is then guided by a centrifugal effect to move along a direction tangential to the blade face of the air impeller 11 to reach an inner wall 122 of the air guiding box 12, wherefrom the fume moves on in a direction indicated by a small arrow 17 to arrive at a bottom wall 123 of the air guiding box 12. The grease vapor carried in the fume is then collected in the annular groove 142 of the grease tray 14. The grease so collected is finally kept in a grease container via the grease tube 143. However, in the course of exhausting the cooking fume, as described above, it is often found that the grease vapor flows from the bottom wall 123 of the air guiding box 12 in several directions, as indicated by arrows 18, in a manner that the grease vapor flows through the annular groove 142 of the grease tray 14 to reach the air suction port 131 of the bottom plate 13. As a result, the grease often drips from the air suction port 131 into the kitchen utensils sitting on the range. Needless to say, a housewife is annoyed by such incident of the grease dripping.